


Tales of Tlaloc

by Tezca



Category: Aztec Religion, In Dreams (1999)
Genre: Gen, Human AU, crossover with In Dreams, implications of deaths in one of the drabbles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-06
Updated: 2014-03-06
Packaged: 2018-01-14 18:52:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,978
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1277134
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tezca/pseuds/Tezca
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five Tlaloc-centric drabbles.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tales of Tlaloc

**Author's Note:**

> Written for one of the challenges on sparkwrites.tumblr.com
> 
> I got the idea for the crossover with the last drabble because when I read the birthstory of Huitzilopochtli and his father being a ball of feathers, I was reminded of the creepy poem Vivian Thompson would say every so often in the movie In Dreams like hell you can do a Huitzilopochtli version of that poem so I figured why not make a crossover AU of sorts.

**Pen and Paper**

Tlaloc was invited to give a lecture at an university about the Aztec culture and mythology from a god’s perspective. Originally they had asked Quetzalcoatl to come down and speak, he would’ve made a more logical choice he thought given how he is god of culture and knowledge, the creator of humankind who taught them various things. But Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca, ever the bickering idiots, manage to knock each other out in one of their fights so he voluntarily took his place.

He spend the next few days preparing the speech; sure he could talk about it off the top of his head for the duration of the event, but he never spoke in front of a huge audience before that wasn’t religious based in any way. So he ended up thinking long and hard about what he wanted to say and typed it up on his computer, keeping it informative but lighthearted as well with jokes here and there evenly throughout. 

He was also lectured by Huitzilopochtli a few times, annoyingly enough, about how he is representing their pantheon so he must present a diplomatic demeanor worthy of a god and give of an air of formality. . 

That just gave Tlaloc the impression that Huitzil wanted him to act like he and the rest of them were better than humanity and they had no human qualities, to which as Tlaloc can attest to and write several books about, that simply wasn’t true. He wanted to keep this as laid back and casually as possible, just like his personality so he ended up yelling at Huitzil to let him do it his way and to stop bothering him.

He was secretly glad the college didn’t ask him to present the lecture. It would be the most boring event of the year he mused to himself, even despite how informative he imagined Huitzil would be.

He decided to work the content of the speech in a way that also showcases just how human they really are even though they are immortal and have powers. He didn’t want to scare or intimidate the kids, he wanted this to be a comfortable environment where they feel at ease with asking him questions.

The day arrived and he dressed up in his best outfit for the event. He soon found himself at the podium taking a deep breath and simply just pretended they were novice priests and priestesses to ease comfortably talking about his subject.

Best part was a few of the students afterwards telling him that he made Aztec culture sound much more interesting than their boring teacher.

**Scarred**

There was a fire at the main house of the gods 10 years ago, a huge fire that took almost all day to get rid off and left a devastating path of destruction in its wake. Most of the roof had caved in, bringing down the walls in the process. Burn marks were everywhere they look and the smell of smoke still lingered somewhat. Luckily he wasn’t caught up in the chaos, he and his wife Chalchiuhtlicue were on vacation in Hawaii. 

One other eerie thing they noticed after getting over the initial shock of seeing the ruins was how quiet everything was. Chalchi feared the worst and began panicking and Tlaloc had to calm to her down, suggesting that perhaps they fled to the human world or possibly Tlalocan. 

“Why don’t you go and check Tlalocan while I’ll see if I can’t find any clues here to what might’ve happened here.” Tlaloc suggested and went their different ways. The rain god walked through the ruins, calling out the names of the other gods while stepping over the broken pieces of the roof and peering into the once beautiful looking rooms, now all black and charred up. 

He was getting worried as he called out different names for 20 minutes with no success, he could feel his heart beating faster in dread that perhaps Chalchi’s fear wasn’t unfounded. Soon he made it to the very little part of the house that wasn’t burned down with the main dining room still intact, 

Tlaloc made the mistake of opening the curtain leading into the room for he immediately screamed in terror and went up against the wall outside of the room. He could feel the color draining from his body and adrenaline rushing as he could see his wife running towards him, having heard his screams.

“Tlaloc what happened!?” She asked, once she reached him, she could notice from the look on his face that he was horrified, too shocked to say anything as he just slid down to the ground, still hearing the beat of his heart. 

Chalchi made to go look herself but Tlaloc grabbed her leg in a motion to stop her as he just grabbed his phone and hit the transporter app. He knew his wife wouldn’t take the sight, the blood writing on the walls among other things.

All Chalchi got from her questioning in the past decade was a malicious being had come from a parallel universe and teared their pantheon apart.

**Reality**

Tlaloc knows most of the myths and legends surrounding any deity in general in the world are usually true with some being an exaggeration or just plainly made up. There were even the common cases where a god or goddess did something and their humans misinterpreted their actions. That was usually the case most of the time and he knows his pantheon is far from being immune from that, but what makes his a little different from most of the other pantheons is that the others would make their godly sides be known more often while his pantheon tended to outwardly show their human side more often.

Granted that caused quite a few moments of confusion among his people back in the heyday of the Aztec empire. He didn’t blame them though, who expects a god to have humanity, but it was the truth. They have their flaws, their little quirks and secrets they keep from each other, just like anyone else who lives on Earth. 

One of his favorite things to do in his spare time when he has nothing to do(or just plain bored and theres nothing on tv) is to go through the various codexes and be amused at the myths of events that are different from how it actually played out. Lately he’d taken up to blogging about it on the internet, posting the myth with his own commentary of which parts were true and which were false. Its a pretty successful blogs he thinks with a diverse group of people reading and commenting, and he gets little negative messages about it so that was always a plus.

“Hey Tlaloc may I request something?” 

“Sure, what do you need?”

“Could you not reveal the truth behind that one picture of me…”

“That’s actually on my blacklist of things I’m not going to talk about so don’t worry.”

“Thanks.”

**Exception**

Quetzalcoatl was the exception in his pantheon, with being against human sacrifices and all. Never really needing any blood or hearts to survive. Well Tlaloc didn’t need them either to keep up his strength either, usually that was Huitzilopochtli and Quetzal’s son  
Tonatiuh. But some of them like Tezcatlipoca certainly liked the stuff. Most of them by this point would jokingly refer to him as the odd one out(mostly coming from Tlaloc and Xipe).

But Tlaloc at times also feels like he’s the odd one out in another way due to acting like the most “normal and calmed down” compared to his brethren, at least most of the time. Sure he also had his quirks and eccentricities, tends to lapse into a quick fit of rage(mostly directed at his servants), but aside from Quetzal he felt like he was the only sane man there, or god rather.

That feeling was never made more apparent today as he heard arguing coming from the other end of the temple. The yelling and commotion was loud enough to be heard as faint noise from where he was standing, which only meant that Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca were at it again. Tlaloc walked closer so he could make out the words more clearly. Apparently Tezcatlipoca thought it was a great idea to hide a heart in Quetzalcoatl’s lunch and it wasn’t until he was halfway done with his meal when he realized what was in it.

Now Quetzalcoatl was threatening to leave the pantheon which of course led to Tezcatlipoca calling him a weak, spineless pussy thus leading to the sounds of walls breaking in the distance.

Tlaloc just mentally gave a sigh of exasperation, rolls his eyes and turned in the other direction to go to his room and get lost in a game of Pokemon for the rest of the day.

**Shackles (Human!AU. In Dreams crossover)**

There was an old mental asylum, an abandoned one that was showing blatant signs of neglect. Peeling walls, different stages of rust, it was in such a decrepit state that it was eerily clear that nobody graced the building in so long. Possibly a decade or more if he had to guess.

It wasn’t just the state of the place that led to its haunting air, the stories surrounding some of the patients that once lived out their natural lives here added to the feel. The dead silence wasn’t helping either as he walked through the halls of the Massachusetts institution. Every little noise would make him jump with a soft gasp and he wasn’t sure if that was the spirits or just an animal.

He should’ve asked someone from his group to come along with him, but no. Tlaloc was here because he was a member of a very small group of people with some sort of psychic ability aside from the basics. He could sense depression and sadness in general. He could even predict when its going to rain, thats actually how he got his nickname from the two brothers. 

Tlaloc kept walking though with his little video camera and tape recorder, going at night is probably not the smartest decision, but it was the perfect time for spirits to come out. He was deep down curious to hear the stories of those that were kept in this prison like place, but his instinct to up and leave this place was slowly eroding that curiosity. He walked further down and it wasn’t long until he thought he heard someone singing.

Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea he thought, but his curiosity and sense of commitant to do for the group won out as he followed the soft, raspy singing. All he could make out for words was something about a ball of feathers being his dad. 

The singing got a bit louder and more clearer as he turned into another hallway with several doors opened on either side. The source seemed to be coming from one of them so against his better judgement Tlaloc kept moving until he stopped just short of entering one of the rooms. The singing was coming from in there and it was loud enough to hear all the works, a simple 4 line poem that made him feel thoroughly creeped out to the bone. 

Tlaloc took a deep breath to calm him down before shining his headlight in. Someone has been writing on the walls, but stopped in dread when the light shined on a part of the wall with the same words he’d been hearing the voice sing. It also didn’t help that he could feel like someone was in the room with him, lurking in the shadows. 

Tlaloc didn’t dare to find out as he dropped his tape recorder as he made a beeline out of the place when he heard footsteps.


End file.
